


Love Is In The Words

by Higuchimon



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Diversity Writing Challenge, One Ship Boot Camp, Other, Soulshipping Week 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:55:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28277979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Higuchimon/pseuds/Higuchimon
Summary: When one soulmate writes on their arm, the words appear on the other’s.  But Juudai never gets an answer…
Relationships: Yubel/Yuuki Juudai | Jaden Yuki
Comments: 6
Kudos: 9





	1. Chapter 1

**Title:** Love Is In The Words  
 **Ship:** Yubel x Juudai  
 **Chapters:** 1-2|| **Words:** 1,500|| **Total Words:** 1,500  
 **Genre:** Romance|| **Rated:** G  
 **Challenges:** Diversity Writing: YGO GX: Yubel x Juudai: D8, 2-shot; One Ship Boot Camp, Yubel x Juudai, #25, magic; Soulshipping Week Day #3, soulmates  
 **Notes:** Soulmate AU. What else would I do?  
 **Summary:** When one soulmate writes on their arm, the words appear on the other’s. But Juudai never gets an answer…

* * *

He knew that Yubel couldn’t answer him. Where they were, they didn’t have anything they could use to write _with_. But that didn’t stop him from grabbing onto the nearest pen and scrawling all over his arm. 

_Are you all right? I’m really sorry._ Juudai stared at the writing, trying to think of what to write next. How could he tell Yubel that he did this because up there, in space, was something that could _help_ them? Something that would show Yubel how not to hurt other people, since they didn’t seem to want to listen to him. 

He started again. _I want you to come home soon. Please come home soon._ What else? Oh. He knew. _I love you, Yubel._

“Juudai.” 

He turned at the sound of his name to see his mom standing in the doorway. She could see what he had written, before it faded away, and she frowned. 

“Juudai. I know you want to think that card is special, but – it’s not your soulmate.” Yuuki Masami sighed a deep and heartfelt sigh. When Juudai started to open his mouth, wanting to deny that, wanting to _tell them_ that he’d seen his words appear on Yubel’s arm and their own words had appeared on his, she shook her head. “No. All of that is behind you now.” 

Juudai stood up, keeping a firm hold on the pen. “Yubel’s going to come home,” he declared. “And then we’re going to be together _forever_.” 

He headed out of the room, wanting to send more messages to Yubel, somewhere where his parents wouldn’t see. 

Masami sighed again as he staled out to the garden. Six years old and as stubborn as could be. She wasn’t that surprised. She was that way herself about a few things. Perhaps it had something to do with how the kids ignored him these days, after those horrid months where anyone he played with fell into comas. 

She considered, then headed off to have a chat with her husband. She’d seen the dark circles under Juudai’s eyes. He hadn’t been getting anywhere near enough sleep since that whole contest thing when he’d insisted on sending that card into space as well. And he woke up screaming more often than he didn’t. 

That couldn’t last. She’d heard rumors of a special treatment. It wouldn’t be easy nor would it be cheap but if it helped – if it worked – then it might be what they needed to do. 

* * *

Juudai was different, afterwards. He slept peacefully through the night, as he hadn’t in a long time. He never spoke Yubel’s name. He was aware for a while that he’d had a medical treatment, but he seemed to forget about that too as time passed on. He never spoke of dueling. He paid enough attention to his classes to pass them, but that was it. 

And he never wrote on himself at all. Everyone knew that if you had a soulmate, then what you wrote on your arm would fade away to appear on theirs. After the card had been sent into space, he’d written for hours at a time. Now he didn’t write anything at all. 

His parents were almost relieved when he picked up a few new cards and started to duel again. He wasn’t quite the same as before, but maybe he would start on the road to being the boy that they’d always wanted him to be. 

* * *

Juudai twitched and turned, tossing on the bed, trying to get himself calmed down and not doing a very good job of it. He trembled, hot tears in his eyes, pain clawing at his heart. 

He knew, without knowing how he knew, that he’d done something horrible. Unforgivable. He didn’t know _what_ it was, only that he _had_. Because Yubel wouldn’t have been so angry at him if he hadn’t. 

Whatever he’d done so they were – had been – he didn’t know – so angry at him, he wanted to fix it. He wanted them to no longer be angry. 

He clawed at his memory, trying to get past the huge block in his mind. It had always been there, but he’d never thought much about it. He vaguely recalled having been in the hospital when he was seven or eight. He wasn’t sure why. Had it been or his appendix? Or tonsils? He’d always assumed it was one of those. But what if it had something to do with Yubel? 

It must have. He strained harder, wanting to figure this out. But while that huge wall in his mind had a few tiny gaps in it, he wasn’t able to get through it all. 

He did remember a few points. That he’d known Yubel when he was a child – around the same time that he’d been in the hospital. Maybe before. That something had taken Yubel away and he’d hurt so very much. 

Why? He scraped incessantly at the wall, until a small bit of it fell away ad he rolled over, grabbing for a pen from the desk. He stared at his arm, then quickly wrote as fast as he could. 

He’d tried a few words before, wondering if he had a soulmate out there. He’d never had an answer, and he’d told himself that he didn’t have a soulmate. That if he wanted to fall in love he’d have to do it the long and hard way. But no one he’d ever met really struck him as the type of person that he wanted to be with like that. 

Now he scrawled on his arm. _Where are you? Where’s Johan? Why did you do this? Yubel?_

The words faded away into his skin, as if they’d never been there at all. He waited. Was he going to get an answer this time? Would there be something? 

For a few seconds, he thought that his arm tingled. People told him that it felt like that when your soulmate started to write back to you. There was a vague hint in the back of his mind that agreed with this. But nothing happened and he wasn’t even sure if the tingle actually existed or if he just _wanted_ it to exist. 

Hane Kuriboh floated in through the window and trilled at him. Juudai tensed at once. A new gateway opening, at the old graveyard? He hadn’t been there in ages. If he could get there, if the opening really existed,, then he could go looking. 

He could find Yubel. He could find Johan. He could get all o this sorted out at last. 

He pulled himself to his feet and grabbed for his backpack. He didn’t use it very often, but now he threw a couple of changes of clothes, some of his spare cards, and a pen into it. He left Jerry Beans Man on the desk, along with his PDA. Wherever he was going, he wouldn’t need that. It wasn’t as if he would do his homework there. 

Whatever it took, he would find Johan and Yubel. Johan didn't deserve to be trapped somewhere because he’d saved them all. Yubel – he wanted answers. He wanted so many answers. And Yubel was the only one who had them. 

He knew, again without any sense of why he knew, that Yubel was still alive out there. That duel hadn’t been able to kill them. So he would search until he found them both. And he would get what he wanted. 

* * *

Haou never wrote on his arm. He didn’t care. Yubel was out there; he knew this as strongly as he ever had. But if Yubel chose not to answer, then he wasn’t going to waste his time. He knew where his faults lay – he hadn’t protected his friends the way that he should have. So he would do it this way. He would take this entire world and make it his. Then whatever friends he had left would be safe. 

Even if they hated him for it. Even if they ended up attacking him and having to die themselves. 

* * *

Juudai relaxed on the bed, warm all over, and debated if he wanted to try writing on his arm. The pen was in reach if he decided that he wanted to. 

“And why would you do that?” Yubel murmured, folding one wing around him. “I’m right here.” 

Juudai laughed, reaching up to brush his fingers against Yubel’s wing. “Because it’s fun. Because I like to do it.” He felt like it linked the two of them even more so than their souls now being one did. 

He picked up the pen, considered for a few minutes, then wrote on his arm. The words faded away, only to appear on Yubel’s. They glanced down at it, and smiled, pleasure in all three eyes, before they leaned forward to kiss him. 

“I love you, too,” Yubel whispered, and Juudai leaned up as close as he could. They were already one being. If he wanted to be even closer, then so be it. 

* * *

**To Be Continued**

**Notes:** On Free Day this week, the 27th,, I’m going to write the second half of this, from Yubel’s POV.


	2. Chapter 2

**Title:** Love Is In The Words  
 **Ship:** Yubel x Juudai  
 **Chapters:** 2-2|| **Words:** 1,500|| **Total Words:** 3,000  
 **Genre:** Romance|| **Rated:** G  
 **Challenges:** Diversity Writing: YGO GX: Yubel x Juudai: D8, 2-shot; One Ship Boot Camp, Yubel x Juudai, #25, magic; Soulshipping Week Day #7, Free Day  
 **Notes:** 2nd half of the soulmate AU.  
 **Summary:** When one soulmate writes on their arm, the words appear on the other’s. But Juudai never gets an answer…

* * *

Yubel watched in pleasure as Juudai’s childish scrawl faded away from his own arm. Theirs tingled a few seconds later and the words now appeared on theirs. Yubel smiled, tracing one hand over the message, repeating each word, carving it into their heart. 

“You should go to sleep, Juudai,” they murmured. “It’s late.” 

Juudai pouted. “But I don’t want to go to sleep. I want to play with you!” 

“We can play tomorrow,” Yubel assured him. He curled up underneath the blankets, setting the pen to one side, and Yubel tucked him in gently. 

Seeing Juudai so young again – it hurt in many ways. Yubel hadn’t yet told him about who he was, who _they_ were, and so much else that they knew he would need to know. Yubel wasn’t even sure of how to tell him so much of it. In this time and this place the knowledge of the Gentle Darkness and the Light of Ruin didn’t exist. 

In Kuragari it had been different. He’d grown up knowing that he would one day be called upon to defend all life from the force meant to destroy it. He’d known it as long as he’d known that the two of them were soulmates. 

Yubel remembered that clearly as well. They’d lived far from him, in another realm entirely. They’d wondered if they would ever have a soulmate – it was a common thought, in a world where soulmates could send messages to one another through writing on their body. On Yubel’s tenth birthday, they’d taken a pen and dared to write, hoping to find someone else. 

The writing faded and for several long minutes, nothing happened. Yubel began to wonder that there wouldn’t be a response. Just as they started to set the pen down, their arm tingled, and strange words spilled across their arm. 

What startled Yubel the most was that those were words they didn’t know. Nor did they even recognize it. So Yubel tried again, and more strange, unknown words answered. 

It was the priests who recognized the language – that of Kuragari, the faraway land where it was rumored the incarnation of the Gentle Darkness had been born. Yubel worked hard for another two years to both learn how to read and write the language, and then to fund a trip to Kuragari. Whoever their soulmate was, they wanted to meet them. 

Learning that said soulmate was not only the Prince of Kuragari but the incarnate Darkness hadn’t been _anything_ that Yubel thought would be possible. But from the moment they gazed into Juudai’s eyes, Yubel knew that they would never go back to their parents. 

They’d written back and forth to one another, sometimes in one language, sometimes in another. Juudai worked hard to learn their language as well. 

In due time, Yubel ended up transformed, for the purpose of protecting Juudai, and almost didn’t believe it when he declared they would love only them forever. They were soulmates – soulmates weren’t always romantic. How could he cut himself off from others like that? 

But Juudai didn’t care about that. He refused to change his mind, and by then, Yubel knew very well that he was too stubborn to do anything else. Juudai’s stubborn streak didn’t come up very often but when it did, he never changed course. 

Yubel chose not to think about the long eons of pain and loneliness when Juudai’s first life ended and they had to survive without him until he returned. Yubel knew that he would; they’d received instruction in the ways of the Gentle Darkness after the transformation, and it included the information that the Darkness always formed a mortal body when needed. The question only remained when that would be needed again. 

Being so alone hadn’t been easy. Spirits and magic were well-known in Kuragari but as Kuragari faded away and years turned to decades turned to centuries turned to eons, the knowledge passed from mortal folk. Yubel waited. No one spoke to them or was even aware of their existence. 

That time stretched forever. Just when Yubel thought that they could bear this no longer, the sense that he existed again, that Juudai returned to them, filled them. It would take more time still until they could find him and find a way to interact with him – Yubel still wasn’t very happy about this whole “card” thing but if it allowed them to defend Juudai, then so be it. 

_One day he will be a man again._ Yubel assured themselves, watching as Juudai slept. For now they would let Juudai be a child. He hadn’t had time to be one before. 

The time would come when they would tell him the truth. Until then, they would protect him with all of their heart. 

* * *

Yubel could feel the writing rising on their arm. But with the energy of the Light all around them, they couldn’t twist and move to see the words. They wanted to but the Light simply wouldn’t allow it. 

**Why would you want to read his lies?** The voice slithered inside of Yubel’s mind. **If he loved you, would he have sent you away?**

“Juudai loves me,” Yubel hissed, longing to bury their claws into whatever the Light had that passed for a heart. “He always has.” 

**So he disposed of you. Threw you aside. Chose others over you.** The Light chuckled, like the sound of nails over steel. **What a wonderful love you share.**

Yubel could feel the words fading away. They wanted to see them but now the Light allowed them to move and their arm was bare and unmarked. Even if it hadn’t been, Yubel wasn’t sure if they wanted to see the words. 

Juudai did love them. Juudai would tell them he loved them all the time. Surely he missed them – surely this had been a misunderstanding. 

The Light’s existence meant pain. It couldn’t have not tormented them even if it had wanted to. It moved in closer. Yubel hadn’t truly felt pain since the transformation – nothing was supposed to be able to hurt them, after all. Yet the Light did it somehow. Each word dug into them, bringing another wave of devastation with it. 

**Do you want to see him again? To learn the truth? To take him back?**

Oh, yes. Yubel wanted to see Juudai more than anything in all their existence. 

**Then you will. You will see how he cares nothing for you – think nothing of you – doesn’t even remember you.** The Light had no face to smile with but Yubel knew that it did regardless. **You’ll see.**

* * *

Yubel screamed even louder as they screeched through the Earth’s atmosphere. With every bit of their strength they tried to protect themselves, but the effort failed. By the time they landed, only one part of them truly remained: their arm. The arm where so many of Juudai’s messages had unspooled. 

But now there was nothing. And as the time passed, no other messages came. Not even when Yubel brought Juudai and those foolish children to the world of sand and took a new form. Even when Juudai stared into their eyes and recognized nothing at all. 

Not until afterward, not until Yubel fought Juudai and that filthy thief and the thief dared to end the duel in a fashion that brought both he and Yubel to the brink of death. 

It was hours after that, when Yubel considered their options on how to pull Juudai to them once again, that their arm tingled and they saw words unspooling again. This time in hurriedly written kanji – demanding to know where they were – where the _thief_ was. 

If Yubel had a pen and if the question had only been about them, they might have replied. But Juudai didn’t care about them. He cared about that bothersome, irritating _thief_. 

Yubel closed their fingers on the arm where the words were. They could have found a pen. They chose not to. Their rage burned to the point that any words would have been incomprehensible. 

Words didn’t matter. Only actions did. Yubel had several actions that remained unfinished. 

A slow and amused smile twisted their lips, regarding the unconscious thief. 

Once they had chosen to keep Juudai innocent of what he was, to let him rest and have a normal child’s life. But Juudai was no loner a child. Juudai needed to learn what he was and who he had been – and who Yubel was. 

Yubel wanted him to hurt as much as they did – to know that they still loved him and that they understood the message of love that he’d sent when sending them into space. Somehow he’d forgotten – but he would remember. Yubel would ensure that he had. Far more than words on skin, Yubel would burn that knowledge into him, to the point that he would never forget, even if he lived and died a thousand times. 

To do that, Yubel needed a weapon that they could use to teach him those lessons. 

* * *

**The End**

**Notes:** And that’s the end of Soulshipping Week. I had fun! Let’s do this again next year!


End file.
